South African Watchdog Raids Insurance Companies Over Price Hikes

The Competition Commission raided the premises of eight long-term insurance companies who are suspected of price fixing.

The commission said it has reasonable grounds to suspect that those companies, which include industry heavy weights, colluded to fix prices and trading conditions.

The commission said the search and seizure operations have been conducted as part of an ongoing investigation that was initiated by the commissioner in January 2021.

Discovery Limited, FMI -which is a division of Bidvest Life Limited, Hollard Insurance Group, and Momentum are among the companies suspected to have worked together, to fix prices for products such as retirement annuities, life insurance cover, disability cover, and funeral assistance benefits.

The Competition Commission said according to the information at its disposal, the companies under investigation shared information on premium rates for risk related products and fees for investment products.

The commission’s spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said: “We went into five sites in Gauteng, two in the Western Cape, and one in KwaZulu-Natal where we are looking for information – whether it is in documents or electronically, in support of our investigation”.

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